A look back at Dominik Szoboszlai's first season and what's to come under Slot

Over a year ago now, Liverpool made one of the most expensive moves in club history (€70 million transfer fee) to bring Dominik Szoboszlai from Leipzig to Anfield.

Szoboszlai is still just 23 years old, and plenty of time is left on the long-term contract he signed after joining the club.

So now is the perfect time to examine just how the move looks today, and more importantly, what Liverpool can expect from the attacking midfielder in the new era under Arne Slot.

A strong start to his Reds tenure

Szoboszlai broke onto the scene for Liverpool with a string of truly impressive performances to start his Premier League career.

In fact, over his first nine matches for the club in all competitions, he registered a FotMob match rating below 7.0 just once; a 6.4 mark for a 29-minute cameo against LASK in the Europa League.

He didn't often find his way onto the scoresheet in terms of either goals or assists, but his full-pitch impact was noticed and appreciated by many fans.

It could also be argued that the lack of production wasn't entirely his fault; through nine Premier League appearances for the club, he had created a team-high 21 chances, the most of any Liverpool player of the past two decades in their first nine league outings.

Even amidst his dominant early stretch for Liverpool, however, Szoboszlai's best outings often came when called out on international duty, captaining the Hungarian national team.

Around the same time as these breaks, he struggled in big matches against the Manchester clubs, United and City, as he was lifted for second-half substitutes en route to a pair of very important draws.

Injuries strike in the winter

In very early January, Szoboszlai suffered a hamstring injury that would keep him out for a couple of weeks; shortly after he returned, he re-aggravated the injury and had to miss some more time.

He returned in March during a very challenging stretch for the club and didn't play poorly per se, but did miss some key chances and failed to help right the ship in another couple of draws against the Manchester sides as well as a huge Europa League loss to Atalanta.

Once again, amidst the rocky stretch for Liverpool, Szoboszlai put in a pair of dazzling performances for Hungary, scoring in friendly wins over Turkey and Kosovo.

By the end of the club season, it was clear that the wear and tear of a packed schedule had taken its toll on Szoboszlai, who was not quite as impactful down the stretch as he was early on.

This led to him falling out of Jürgen Klopp's favor over the final days of the legendary gaffer's Liverpool career.

He was used for a half at a time, if not less, bringing his first Liverpool season to an unceremonious end.

His last start of the season was in an infamous loss at Everton, in which he (as well as the rest of the side) brought little to the table. He was subbed off after 63 minutes, and wouldn't play more than 14 minutes in any of Klopp's four remaining matches as manager.

As per the usual, he had a strong Euro for Hungary. He only contributed one assist, but could have had more if his teammates were a bit more clinical as he created seven chances across the three group stage games.

Captain Szoboszlai may not have received an official goal contribution for it, but he did help Hungary score one of its most famous goals in recent memory; he executed a convincing "dummy" right in front of Kevin Csoboth, who subsequently scored the latest goal in Euro group stage history (90+10') to win the game.

At the time, it seemed like the goal might get Hungary into the knockout stages, but it simply was not to be.

What makes him so dynamic at international level?

So why exactly is Szoboszlai more dynamic and impactful for Hungary than Liverpool? One common answer might be quality of competition- beating up on Scotland isn't exactly the same thing as clashing with Manchester City- but his consistency for the national team is much more than what we see even against bottom-table Premier League clubs.

There are, quite famously, some players who are inexplicably better for country than club, or vice versa, but this does not appear to be such an instance- there's a very clear reason.

That is positioning; Szoboszlai almost exclusively plays a central role for Liverpool, whether he's shifted up as a central attacking midfielder or truly playing in the middle of the yard as a traditional central midfielder.

Conversely, he plays on the outside for Hungary, serving as a right or left attacking midfielder or winger, depending on the team's formation.

Of course, the answer to getting these kinds of performances out of Szoboszlai isn't necessarily as simple as moving him to one of those positions.

Liverpool simply have more need for him in the middle of the pitch than they do on the outside, with players like Mo Salah, Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo, or even the likes of Diogo Jota, Darwin Núñez and Harvey Elliott able to contribute out there.

The good news for Szoboszlai is that things do change, and he is still just 23 years of age, despite all he's accomplished.

Salah is aging, Jota is never healthy, and either one of Díaz or Núñez could be sold for a major fee at any time.

A bright future ahead

Minutes on the wing could be available, and given the dynamic nature of Arne Slot's system, Szoboszlai, who can track back nearly as comfortably as he comes forward, could be a better fit for the role than say, Díaz or Núñez.

A new perspective is sometimes all that is needed, however. Slot could see Szoboszlai's strengths and value in a way Klopp never did, and make more of a point of rotating him into the outside spots.

Providing extra rest for other forwards wouldn't be a bad side effect of this strategy either. Of course, the midfield spot left vacant by Szoboszlai would need to be filled on those occasions, but if Stefan Bajcetic can be a bit healthier and the Trent Alexander-Arnold midfield project progresses, that problem just might take care of itself.

It's a crowded squad at Anfield, and when a player like Szoboszlai isn't at his very best, it's tough to crack the XI consistently.

It's just worth asking whether he's been given the best possible chance to succeed, or if there's more the club can do for him.

Jürgen Klopp was of course one of the best managers on the planet, but he wasn't necessarily the right strategist to maximize every single player- maybe for Szoboszlai, head coach Slot will be just that.